What does your cast bullet tolerance look like?

[Wansingct]

Hello, new caster trying to figure out my own edges of “acceptable” for my cast bullets but am very curious what the line between your keepers and discards looks like. Right now I separate between ugly bullets that go back into the pot for the next casting session, seconds that must have perfect bases but may have wrinkles that I think might not hurt performance (still TBD on how they act) and firsts that look pretty darn good as far as I can tell.

I know I’m getting wrinkles from not having my mold hot enough and I’m working on figuring that out but I think I’m just a slow caster and need to pick up my pace. Also, I’m using pure lead which isn’t helping but it’s all part of using a 300BLK subsonic for hunting and wanting maximum expansion.

So where do you draw the lines on what is a keeper and what’s not? Thanks for any input and/or pictures!

[nhyrum]

I used to throw anything with any wrinkles back in the pot. Now, the ones with a few little wrinkles, I load and shoot. You're not trying to set f class records with cast bullets, so they don't really need to be perfect to be accurate enough for even most pistol competition shooting

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[megasupermagnum]

For my normal shooting bullets, I mainly look at the base. I need a nice sharp base edge, and I don't tolerate any wrinkles or poor fill out on the bottom band. I care very little about what the nose half of the bullet looks like. Mainly I just keep an eye out when sizing bullets, I'm sure some bad ones get through. Bullets are stored in bulk containers.

For hunting bullets, I don't accept anything less than near perfection. Visibly I won't accept any defects. Bullets are also all weight sorted, and stored individually until loaded.

[popper]

I'd go to 1-2% Antimony for alloy. Don't want a play-dough base. Not sure why you think expansion is a must for hunting. Accuracy is what you need for sub hunting and that is hard to get with pure. Also with a can it'll lead more easily.

[Neverhome]

99% of my shooting is to produce the tiniest groups possible. I’ll only keep perfect bullets. Who knows if it makes a difference or not but I try to control as many variables as practical. At least if I know the bullets are “perfect” the huge group I just shot must have another cause.

[Conditor22]

Wansingct

what boolit are you using? a flat nose will expand more than a pointed or round nose but less than an HP
what are you planning on hunting?
are you using lube or powdercoating?
the only time I go pure is with Black powder, for the rifle I like COWW + 2% tin.

The farther your shooting a boolit the cleaner/nicer/prettier the boolit should be. Over long distance imperfections will throw off your point of impact.

Wrinkles can be caused by a dirty/oily mold, alloy too cold, or lack of tin/pewter for cooler temperature casting.

Anytime I get wrinkles and I know the alloy and temperature, I clean the mold cavities well with dish soap and nylon (toothbrush or denture brush).

It helps to know the temperature of your alloy.

Pressure casting is a way to get nice boolits in a cooler mold (if your alloy is clean)

[bmortell]

just depends what for. hunting and accurate target shooting i want very close to perfect and weight correct. then keep some of the medium quality for velocity testing. things like wadcutters for close range blasting i keep all once its up to temp and not getting wrinkles then i just give it a glance before seating. i dont consider keeping anything before none come out with wrinkles any more cause i figure if it had external wrinkles i dont know what the inside looks like. and i use the pressure casting method of putting the spout pressed against the pour hole and i seem to get less rejects that way after its properly warm. also might wanna add 1% tin to cast a bit better and it wont increase hardness and meaningful amount.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Rejects - anything that has wrinkles or a non-perfect base.

[ACC]

Wrinkles? Back in the pot. For my 7.62X39's they must weigh .1 grains plus or minus or back in the pot. For my hand guns no wrinkles and good bases. With my 7.62X39's I an averaging 1 to 1.25 groups at 100 yards.

ACC

[rking22]

For me it is just about identical to what Mega described in post 6. Any base or baseband defect goes back in the pot, along with serious wrinkles. The rest are visually sorted into “perfect” and “decent”. Decent are plinking and offhand practice , perfects are hunting or load work up bullets. I rarely shoot groups for the sake of shooting groups, but do shoot offhand for score on occasion. Perfects are for score shooting as well. I am to lazy to weigh sort anymore. Did it enough to be comfortable that visually sorting will cover my needs. Pistol bullets are a bit different, they sort “perfect” and “ looks like a bullet with a good base”. Perfects are the same as rifle, hunting and accuracy. Looks like a bullet are for plinking and point shooting, guess what I do more on

[Tatume]

Not only do I reject all wrinkles and all rounded base edges, but any bullets that are not frosty go back in the pot. Frosty bullets are good bullets.

[M-Tecs]

It depends on application. For cowboys action if it good enough to provide a gas seal it's good enough to shoot. For 600 and 1,000 yard BPCR competition in addition to being visual "perfect" each bullet also gets weighed.

[Wansingct]

All of my shooting with this rifle is in a 10.5" 300BLK pistol and I don't shoot it more than 100 yards. I'm running my temp at about 850* (via PID) on pure lead. I haven't tested pressure casting but think that might be a good option. I may go back to ladle pouring to see if that helps. The mold is the recent MIHEC 300 blk 240 grain group buy. In the 3 cavity mold I'm making 2 HP's and 1 solid per run.

Long story short, it looks like you all are holding much higher expectations on your bullets than I am right now. Lol, guess we'll see how these shoot with some loads I'm working up.

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[charlie b]

First, stop using pure lead. I don't even do that in my muzzle loaders. Add some tin and casting will get much easier and still not increase hardness much.

As for rejects, mostly what people said. I look for MOA or less in my rifle bullets. Good base and no wrinkles, crisp bands. Then they get weighed into 0.5gn batches. For example, 160gn bullets may weigh 158.0 to 160.0 Shooting batches will be from 158.0 to 158.4, etc.

When I used to cast pistol bullets I only cared about the base and gross flaws. Never weighed them.

[rking22]

Just 1% tin added to your pure lead will make it cast MUCH better and have no measurable effect on expansion. Especially that hp, can’t imagine getting even one good one in that long skinny cavity without some tin!

[megasupermagnum]

I love my pure lead, but for a relatively complex rifle bullet, especially a hollow point, I would try adding tin. The BP classic 40:1 (2.5% tin) would be a great choice for dramatic expansion, while casting much easier.

[kevin c]

Not only do I reject all wrinkles and all rounded base edges, but any bullets that are not frosty go back in the pot. Frosty bullets are good bullets.

^^^
This. The frost I want to see is a light matte appearance all over the boolit. With my alloy, molds and technique, when I see that, I'm just about guaranteed flawless fill out and perfectly clean surfaces for all boolits dropped from the mold. It might take a few pours to get to the right mold temp and rhythm, but with 8 cav molds it rains boolits once in the groove.

ETA: my application really doesn't require that level of pickiness, but I gotta say, it's very satisfying to cast a good boolit.

I'm another that thinks a little tin might help your fill out. That, or perhaps going up on temp (mold and/or melt).

[GregLaROCHE]

For me, consistance in weight is more important than minor surface flaws. However, major wrinkles go back in the pot, before even being weighed.

[Shopdog]

"One" way(don't mean "only")to look at the situation;

Like bottle neck loaded run out. It isn't only about the final product,eliminating run out helps you understand hopefully,where in the process of loading,it's being introduced. Think of it as,on the job training.

So,to "settle" for less than stellar dropped bullets you may be shortchanging yourself? A mould oven for preheating eliminates a lot of "early" rejects. Good luck with your project... and please,report back how things are working out.

[Bazoo]

I reject anything that has inclusions or poor fillout on driving bands. I don't usually have any wrinkles because I run hot and don't keep anything till I get hot enough to start having crisp edges. Sometimes I'll have a small wrinkle or crease and if it's for plinking bullets for bulk ammo I'll let it go. If the bases are slightly rounded and the rest of the bullet is crisp I'll let it go.

I work at getting my casting technique down so I get good bullets. If I mess up the pour I drop the bullets in the sprue box. It depends on the mould though. My Lee 358-140-SWC will drop a good bullet with lots of variation in pour technique whereas my RCBS 38-150-SWC wants to be hot, and have a generous sprue puddle that doesn't spill over the side or into the other cavity. If either of those happens the bullet will not be crisp.

I find I get the best results if I don't sort when casting. It breaks my concentration in getting consistent pours.